Designing Full Color Brochures

Designing your own full color brochures can be intimidating when you realize how much of an impression these marketing tools can leave on a client. A brochure should enhance the professionalism and integrity of your company, convincing the client of your ability to provide them with top quality products or services. Below are ten design tips to creating a high quality brochure that promotes the excellence of your company.

1. Brochures can be used for many different purposes, but choose only one or two main purposes for a single brochure. Your purpose may be to inform the public of your business, to introduce a new aspect of your company, or present company products or services.

2. Next decide on the use of your brochure. You may want to use the brochure as a direct mail piece or a handout at a trade show or business meeting.

3. Write the content of the brochure next. Avoid long sentences, advanced vocabulary, and bulky paragraphs. Not many people desire to read a small novel about your company. Simplicity is best.

4. Use headers and sub headers to organize your text. Many people do not have time to read all of the text but will skim the bold words. Therefore, be sure the headliners convey your entire message.

5. Avoid adding images merely for their aesthetic qualities, even though this is important. Images need to support the content. Place the graphics strategically alongside text to convince readers of the validity of your message.

6. Contrasting colors capture attention more easily but be careful to not overdo the color scheme. Choose three to four colors to use throughout the brochure. Make sure the text stands out from the background and the headers pop out from the rest of the content.

7. Choose a size that fits your content well. Avoid both overcrowding and too much white space. The size should also accommodate your purpose. An 11x8.5 brochure allows for easy mailing, while a 33x11 works well when doubling the brochure as a poster.

8. Choose a paper type that will fit your purpose and quality. A heavier stock can look more professional but can crack on fold seams. If choosing a heavy stock, be sure your text or images do not cross the fold lines. Another option included in paper type is a coating. Uncoated paper can be written on but gloss gives a high quality appearance.

9. Know how you will fold your brochure as this will help in organizing the layout and promote your message. Text and images can cross fold lines for a more unique appearance, but using the fold lines for natural columns with which to align the content insures clarity.

10. Before ordering your brochures, be sure that the printing company you choose uses the full color method. Also known as four color, this technique is used by commercial printers to insure the highest quality color and images in your printed products.

The most successful brochures were procured through trial and error, which unfortunately takes time and testing. Hopefully, though, these tips will give you a good place to start in designing full color brochures that stand out and produce results.

Author Info:

Janice Jenkins is a writer for a marketing company in Chicago, IL. Mostly into marketing research, Janice started writing articles early 2007 to impart her knowledge to individuals new to the marketing industry.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Full Color Brochures, Brochure Printing

Logo Design Creative Ideas

A creative logo designer will need a computer, digital camera, printer, and design software to get started. But outside of these expenditures, start-up costs are minimal, as are the ongoing fixed overheads to operate the business because the designer can work from home and the majority of jobs can be serviced using e-mail and fax. The better known the designer become for the incredible design work and logos that perfectly describe what they represent, and the more well-known the customers are, the higher the fees will go.

The design development is generally the next stage in a creative logo design process. Here designs are composed with images from our investigation to create some logo design creative ideas.

The first creative ideas that the designer think of are not usually the most original. The reason they are already in the imagination is because the designer have seen them before in some form or other.

The best logo design creative ideas are those that the designer discovers by trial and error through composing the images from the investigation.

There are many composition techniques that the designer can use to help the designer to generate the logo design creative ideas.

Techniques, such as welding, tiling, subtraction, layering and framing the images often give rise to creative ideas with more subtle layers of meaning.

When bringing the creative logo design idea to life, the designer want to make sure this is done the right way; using the technical experience of a design firm specifically geared for inventors. This means using mechanical engineers, industrial designers and a company like Design My Creative idea which always remembers the designer are trying to get the creative logo design to market. This keeps the creative logo design consistent by using a single company, making the invention more professional and marketable.

Simple, Efficient & Effective Invention Partner

In conclusion we can say that regardless of where the designer are in the design process, save time and money by ensuring that the creative logo design, packaging design, branding and website are created by the use of a creative design idea. Companies usually act as the designer's silent partner throughout the entire process, taking no royalties and allowing the designer to retain control of all aspects of the invention. The services are clearly defined and our desire to work with the designer every step of the way ensures the designer's invention's utmost potential. We at creative logo design truly reaches the clients with success, with the belief that the more successful the designer are, the inventor, the more successful we, the designers product design firm, will be as well.

Author Info:

Erica Mike wrote this article on behalf of Mighty Logo Designs website. For more information on very low priced logos and brochure designs, you can visit mighty logo design.

Find more information about cheap and best logos here.

What is Passion in Art - Does Desire Elude Or Even Scare You?

Passion in art, do you know it? Do you long to melt into the colors of red and dance with the latest voice expressing desire? Does it penetrate your very being, till you feel you can barely breathe? Do you feel restless and think that you will never 'get there'?

I know what passion means to me, and I find the very word abused and over used.

I decided to do a search on passion art, passion images. I wanted to see what passion means to other artists, maybe fulfill my need for going through a gallery. I typed said text in on google and saw image after image of nothingness. I became bored after the 5th page of square after square, of work that presented what others had decided to label as passion.

So what is it?

Why does it elude so many?

Maybe you do in fact feel blood rushing to your head at the sight of a still life. I can only express the fact that I have been searching for passion for art, all my life, it is the very core of my work, yet I know, I will never obtain its secrets.

I guess I am on a soapbox for passion.

The dictionary describes passion as a strong and barely controllable emotion; a state or outburst of emotion; intense sexual love; intense desire or enthusiasm for something.

More over used words: intense; emotion; desire.

Somehow I just don't think those emotions can be stirred up, within anyone's being, while viewing a bowl of fruit.

There is a real dichotomy with art. Some want to understand it; ask it to give them more; enlighten them towards some electric realization of cosmic fortitude.

And some people seek it out to place above their couch, match its color; stay in its place never asking anything but calmness ... with no questions asked.

Of course there are some questions people are prompted to ask if they are in love with those little cottages, light coming from the windows with a path leading to peaceful spots of a tired mind. People ask themselves, (and I am supposing here) "What do you think the people in that little cottage are having for dinner? Or is it a family like mine or wish I had?" Memories and nostalgia are stirred in some people, I am guessing. Is that passion though? I concede, maybe to some, but not one single bit to me.

I met a man who told me that he only likes poems that rhyme. Humm, I thought... limericks then? How mind bending. I am suggesting that if you feel that way, that a poem is not a poem unless it rhymes, or a painting is only blessed if it matches your couch, that you challenge your mind to hope for more.

Every single painting or sculpture, every poem or story I create, makes me feel uncomfortable and discontent. If you are an artist, or a lover of art, I believe you want that. It is passion reaching back at you, taunting you, to feel heights you have not yet reached.

While sex can and often does include passion, or at least we hope it does! I am not writing about sex per say, I am suggesting that passion, in its rawest form, should not be misconstrued as something that does not elude to something more. It should compete with ideas already set in your mind and cause you a sense of abandonment of your own being, if not for a moment.

Passion is emotion that is ready to explode and there is no resting place in sight. I want that! I want every stroke on canvas to exhume that. If you are a love of art or an artist of any genre at all, you should want that too. To find a resting place in art is to find boredom in the end. Can you soften your mood with art? Can you mend your own wounds while painting a vase of flowers? Of course you can. But, seek out passion, know it, embrace that elusive treasure. It will not cause you to feel 'comfortable', no, but it shouldn't, that is not its definition. Will you ever get there? I would answer no as well.. it is just barely out of reach, so keep reaching!

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
copyright 2008

Author Info:

ABOUT Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

I paint and sculpt female fantasy art and map fairy tale adventures. I dream of beautiful women on canvas and art of exotic women.

I have illustrated for Hay House Inc.,"Women Who Do Too Much" CARDS, taken from Anne Wilson Schaef's book. I also illustrated for Neil Davidson, who was considered for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing, and several other publications. My paintings are collected worldwide.

Giclee canvas art work, greeting cards and posters are available for sale on my website:

http://www.kathysart.com

Sign up for my mailing list for FREE ART GIFTS suitable for children: Drawings of whimsical angel pictures, legends of mermaids and fairies in art. Tiny angels whisper fantasy art for shrink art, or coloring pages. Also a "Letter From the Tooth Fairy", ya just never know when you might need one!

I am Represented by:

Monkdogz Urban Art, Inc., 547 West 27th Street, 5th floor, New York, NY 10001

ORIGINAL ART may be purchased through Monkdogz

http://www.monkdogz.com

Learn How to Use Oil Paint

Oil Paint has been used by many of the most famous painters. It is a great medium that isn't hard to use and has many exceptional qualities. Before you begin painting, you need to make sure you have all the supplies including paint, brushes, terpentine or another oil paint solvent, canvas to paint on, and anything else you might need.

Begin by very lightly drawing out what you are going to paint. This is optional, but if you are doing a realistic intricate painting, you will probably benefit from this first task. Make sure it is very light with pencil so that it doesn't show through the painting. You don't have to be detailed, just get the general layout. If you want, you could even do an intricate pencil drawing on another paper first to get the feel for it.

Next, you will do a light wash of the lightest colors in all the areas. Use white paint only on the white spaces. Mix a little paint with more terpentine or solvent to make it a thin wash. If you use too much paint, it will take forever to dry and you'll never finish it.

Follow with the next darkest layers and work your way through. Continue using thin layers, but not as thin as before because it isn't a wash. You can become more and more intricate as you go through. What is great about oil is that it doesn't dry quickly, so you have time to work with it. Be careful, though, because you are more likely to mix the colors, so make sure you know if it's dry or wet and what you are supposed to do with it.

If you are doing more of an abstract colorful painting that doesn't require intricate detail, you can be less precise, although I would still recommend starting with a wash. If you are doing a Pollack style drawing, than, of course, this probably isn't necessary. What's great about abstract is that you can do what you want and you don't have to follow the laws of paints if they don't suite you.

For intricate paintings, I recommend waiting until it is completely dry or almost dry before starting the very intricate stuff. Of course, I suggest playing around with it. For example, I wait until a human face is completely dry before I do the intricate detail of the eyes, but not when I do the detail of the nose because I want to do more blending with skin.

The best way to learn how to paint is by trying and practicing it on your own. There is no right or wrong way to paint; it is an art. Experiment and you will find yourself with your own style before you know it!

Author Info:

Do you need more oil paint instruction? Go to BeginninginArt.com for more information about oil painting, drawing, art supplies, and more. Start painting and develop your own artistic style today!

Know Better the Mind of Artists

In comparison with the early decades the practice of communication has improved a lot. People are now connected with their dear ones in a better way and even see each other making gestures while chatting. The entire process of live chat is based on technology. Using this advantage, people can expand their business and convey their messages in a more expressive way.

The live chat provides various benefits that are worthy:
• The live chat have simplified and made interesting the process of communication making it easy to understand for persons of both sides.
• At a low cost you can communicate your dear ones.
• To derive the provisions of chat live installation of software is not always necessary.
• A person can operate multiple chat sites at one time

This provision of live chat also benefits art aficionados and artists. They can communicate each other in a better and reliable way sharing their interest and promote art. The chat live help artists also express their ideas and theme of their work. Through online mails they can get the feedback that encourages them to perform the work in a better way. The feed back enrich the artists with the changing taste of public. Using the online device an artist can upload the images of their work and send them to his friends through emails and e-cards. Many renowned art galleries have adopted this real chat tool to promote art among the public. Art lovers can collect information of the recent development or any art festivals with the help of this live chat.

Chat live can also be regarded as the real time communication. The users can see each other making gestures and also save the conversation for future reference. You can also regard chat live as the ultimate way to date online. So, this amazing and interesting communication means have made life easier.

Author Info:

To collect information about art and artists you can consider the chat live provision. Chat live gives a clear insight about the artists' ideas and theme of the work and also removes their perplexities in an easy time.

You Can Learn to Paint

We all admire paintings. Our tastes may very our preferences be diverse but we all like to look at paintings. Secretly we wish we could produce the kind of work our favourite artists seem to be able to churn out at will. Well the good news is you can. Painting, contrary to the popular myth is not some secret gift given by the gods to a select few. It is simply a skill that can be learned by anyone who is prepared to put a little time and effort in.

Most people are intimidated from picking up a brush. Their self confidence about their ability to paint has probably suffered a number of knocks beginning at the school art class where they may have been led to believe that they didn't have the "gift". That mysterious "gift" that doesn't exist. This belief may have been reinforced by others so they go through life been able to learn new skills for their job but not daring to pick up a paint brush.

They may learn complex engineering skills, computer skills become successful in business but mention art and they can't do it, because art, so the myth goes, requires a special gift. This is one of life's greatest myths. Learning to paint is just like learning to drive. Nobody jumps into a car on their first lesson and drives straight for the motorway.

Remember when you first started to learn to drive. How complex everything seemed to be. The clutch control that you thought you would never be able to master, the gears, that three point turn. After a few years on the road driving becomes automatic. Because driving is a skill. And like all skills it can be learned by anybody.

Art is the same. It is just a skill and nothing more. Learning to draw requires the student to learn to master certain techniques. With a little time and effort these techniques are easily mastered and was seemed out of your reach becomes second nature to you. If you haven't picked up a brush since you were at school you are missing out on a wonderful experience. If you've always wanted to learn to paint but are intimidated from going to an art class then there are numerous other ways to learn.

Art instructional dvds are a great way to get to grips with the basic techniques. It was this method that got me back into art. I too believed that art required a special gift and that only a few people could do it until I bit the bullet and had a go. I soon realised that the techniques of painting are easily learned and I surprised myself at how quickly I was learning. If only the art class at school had been so instructive.

Art instructional dvds are a good way to get back into art. You can play them on your computer with an easel set up at the side and follow the artist as he instructs you. If you don't understand some point you can replay it until it sinks in. Within a short space of time you will surprise yourself at how fast you can acquire the skills to paint a good painting. Before starting though, the first thing you have to do is dump the belief that been able to paint requires some special gift. It doesn't, like anything else in life it's just a skill that can easily be mastered.

Author Info:

Paul Merry runs http://www.artscraftsandhobbies.co.uk/

The Internet Emerges As a Rescue For Contemporary Art and Artists Worldwide

Art on the Internet is the cultural reproduction of artistic merit, where the internet primarily serves as a medium for the artists to display their work. An Online art gallery may seem to be an analogy to video art or something akin, but there is a major line of distinction between the two, as video art primarily uses video as its medium.

Online Art Gallery is a means to exhibit the artistic talent of numerous talented artistes, who otherwise go unsung in the crowd, as not everybody can manage to bask in the limelight. A form of display of art, most net artists perceive the Internet as a component of the entire system.

The Internet transpires as a cost effective medium for the artists, as it saves them a lot of incidental costs, such as holding exhibitions in order to showcase their work. Through Online abstract art gallery platform, the artists have their own private spaces and this serves as their exhibitions. It is a very personal approach as it allows the patrons and consumers to get acquainted with a particular artist's style and theme of work. Online art gallery also helps the artists sell their works and saves them the trouble of reliance on destiny to find patrons.

The effects of online abstract art gallery have been surfacing numerous rescued artists, as general public is realizing the rather inexpensive talent hidden across the globe and inexpensive too. Also, there are many websites engaged in promoting Australian art online. These websites also aim to bring forth various art forms, otherwise currently entangled in legal webs. This is mainly due to the laws of censorship for art, which is a recurring phenomenon around the globe.

Australian art online is an endeavor to allow art to take its own course and achieve the sublime vision of the artists without the hindrance of legalities and censorship. This provides for unadulterated art to live up to the artists' vision and perspective.

The Australian art online is a striking online art gallery that is making its presence felt through the showcasing and distribution of worldwide artists and forms of art, as well as, native Australian and aboriginal art.

Author Info:

Smit Mathur is an expert for writing Articles and is currently working for Compassion Art. For more information related to Online abstract art gallery, art by Kerri Koczanowski, Original drawings for sale, Modernism paintings, Landscape art please visit http://www.compassionart.com.au/

Tips on Pencil Portrait Drawing - Clothing

Drawing clothing can be quite challenging. The challenge usually centers on the drawing of the folds. There is a lot of reflected light, lots of darks, and many lights. But it is exactly this variety of values that makes the drawing of clothes very attractive but also challenging. Learning to draw fabric well requires a concerted effort and a good deal of practice.

Here are a few tips to memorize:

* Folds There are five types of folds we must recognize when drawing clothing:

1. The column fold
2. The drape fold
3. The inert fold
4. The coil fold
5. The interlocking fold

Of course, in a typical situation, more than one of these fold types are present. Here are the definitions:

* Column Fold This type of fold is the most common and is typified by its cylindrical shape suspended or originating from one point. The value pattern is that of a cylinder which involves a hard edge followed by a parallel line of reflected light, a shadow edge and a soft edge. The column fold also shows highlights here and there depending on the location of the light source. You can find such folds frequently in scarves, curtains, and skirts.

* Drape Fold This fold comes about when a piece of fabric is suspended from two opposing points. The fabric in between the two points is long enough so that it can hang freely and form a somewhat semi-circular shape. The picture is that of a series of alternating narrow dark and light semi-circular strips that begin and end at the two points. This type of fold is often found in blouses.

* Inert Fold This type of fold occurs in a piece of fabric that is not suspended but lies on a surface without being stretched. Here, the folds can go in many different directions. However, each fold relates to its neighbors in a particular manner. You should study these patterns and render them in a consistent way although the whole thing seems at first to be a mess. You can observe this type of fold when a woman's dress is partially resting on the surface she is seated on.

* Coil Fold A piece of fabric that is wrapped around a circular rod will invariably show this sort of fold. It has a spiral-like appearance and it can be found in sleeves and pant legs when the sleeve or pant leg is somewhat twisted around the arm or the leg.

* Interlocking Fold - Fabric that is piled on a couch or is wrapped around someone's neck will often show folds within folds or on top of each other. With this sort of fold it becomes imperative that you trace how each fold works itself into the other and apply the appropriate cast shadows.

As mentioned above, in a typical pencil portrait involving fabrics, you will find combinations of these different types of folds. It is important that you recognize each type instantly and that you have practiced drawing them.

You should identify the areas where the fabric is in tension and where it is not and see where the darks and lights are. In addition, there will always be hard edges and soft edges that must be rendered faithfully for your drawing to look realistic.

Finally, there is also something called: "lost and found" edge. A lost and found edge is an edge that, at first, can easily be seen, but then peters out and becomes invisible, only to reappear a little further down the line. Although the edge consists of two disconnected lines, the eye through the brain recognizes that the two disjointed line pieces belong together and form one edge.

As you can see, drawing clothes is not all that simple. Sometimes clothes are dismissed and often underestimated in their difficulty to draw. But, if you know that they are not so easy, you should not feel bad if, at first, your clothes drawings do not look very realistic. Sorry to say, but learning the art of drawing clothes requires much practice and careful observation.

Author Info:

Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter. Samples of Remi's pencil portraits and other articles can be found at Remi's Pencil Portraits.

Get Into Painting

I've always loved art. Always admired people who could seemingly with ease turn out wonderful looking paintings and wished I could do it. My own experience with art consisted of a few art classes while I was at school. These usually ended with disapproving facial gestures and body language from the teachers, leaving me to believe that I didn't have that mysterious "gift" that only a certain few could possess. I left school believing that artists were born not made, and that I could never join the ranks of painters or turn out a good drawing.

The need to express myself through art never left and I couldn't pick up a piece of paper without doodling on it. I had been conditioned to believe that I could never draw or paint and quickly forgot about trying to do so. I got on with my life and raised my children, losing myself in work. But the urge to paint was always in the background, gnawing away at me.

With age comes greater confidence. And as I grew older I began to question everything I'd been told about needing a gift to paint. Who were these mediocre teachers that were destroying the urge to be creative in children. Sending them into the world with false beliefes about their lack of competence to acquire certain skills. What was this so-called "gift" referred to by a few smug people?

Once my children had grown up I decided to challenge the belief that I didn't have the abiity to paint. I looked for an art class but because I work shifts this made it difficult for me to attens so I bought a few books and practiced the techniques and discovered that I could turn some good pictures out.

Books are great, I love them you can learn lots of wonderful information from reading them. But they lack the competence of showing you how to perform a certain technique. If you are interpreting something the wrong way, you have no way of knowing without being able to see the artist perform the technique.

The best way would be to attend a class but this is not always possible if you have a heavy work schedule. This was frustrating. Then I discovered a whole new method of instruction. The Dvd. I discovered the art instructional DVD and I suddenly started to learn faster than ever. I love Art instructional DVDs . You can watch your favourite artist on the screen showing you how to perform certain techniques. And the best thing is, if you don't understand it the first time, you can replay it until you grasp the technique.

Through books and DVDs I have been able to realise that I did have the ability to paint all the time. It was always there, suppressed in childhood by mediocre teachers and held down by a false belief. Now I love to paint. For my own pleasure no one else's. I don't need anyone's opinion to tell me what's good and what isn't because as long as I'm happy with what I do, and as long as I enjoy doing it that's all that matters. I know I'm not brilliant, but so what.

It's the same for many people. They would like to try painting but are afraid because of negative experiences. They are afraid to join a class because they believe that everyone will be better than themselves, a belief that is usually wrong.

Author Info:

I started my business http://www.artscraftsandhobbies.co.uk an online art store to gather a wide range of quality Dvds and books catering for the learning artist and have built up quiet a large customer base. Don't be afraid to have a go at painting. If it's something you've always fancied doing but are afraid to start. Forget your fear it's illusionary. Just have a go. You'll surprise yourself.